Open Letter to Archbishop Kaziimba

Your Grace, In the Sunday Monitor of Nov 28, 2021, I wrote an open letter to Bishop Loum, the new Bishop of Northern Uganda Diocese, imploring him to heal the diocese of fissures caused by, among other things, the contestation of his election in a court of law, by a section of Christians. Your Grace is obviously aware of this incident, although the aggrieved Christians petitioned you to intervene in the matter without success. Consequently, they resorted to secular courts for redress.

This week, I was compelled to write to Your Grace an open letter too. This is because, the malaise plaguing Northern Uganda Diocese is symptomatic of a pervasive cancer eating at the foundational values that anchor spiritual and canonical conduct of business in the Church of the Province of Uganda. It is sad that the province is currently inundated with grave allegations of deception, adultery, corruption, manipulation and foul play.

Certainly, our country is in dire need of moral leadership today. The church should exemplify this. It is, thus, a horrendous contradiction that those who are supposed to be the custodians of our nation’s morality and conscience are themselves indulging in decadent acts. In the final analysis, this will leave our country without a moral compass. This is a matter of grave concern to many a person who care about the moral health of our country.

Your Grace needs to seriously investigate and holistically address the issues birthing ungodly behavior and disregard for established norms and canon laws in the conduct of the affairs of the church. I beseech you to find out why, for example, there is persistent contestation surrounding the election of bishops, across the length and breadth of the Province. From Kitgum, Kumi, Gulu, Nebbi to Muhabura, etc.

In fact, it is anticipated that in the next couple of years, more dioceses will be engulfed in conflicts emanating from irregularities characterizing the election of bishops. The reasons for this may be many and distinct. However, they are strong indicators of institutional dysfunctions and crisis of moral leadership within the church. How does one explain, for instance, the absence of a ratified constitution in Northern Uganda Diocese for the last two or so decades? How does such a diocese govern the affairs of the church?

Based on the foregoing example, Your Grace, it is not farfetched to assume that many of our church leaders are above the law, not under it. The corollary is that many of our institutions are ruled by whims and idiosyncrasies of individual leaders. This is a travesty of established culture for governing the church. It is a tragedy.

Incidentally, Your Grace, how did we get ensnared in the huge debt and financial crisis solicited purportedly for funding the Church House? Relatedly, what has happened to the resolutions of the Provincial Assemblies of 1988 and 2016 to name the Church House on Plot 34, Kampala Road, in honour and memory of slain Archbishop Janani Luwum? On August 25, 2016, the 23rd Provincial Assembly resolved again, following a 1988 resolution, to name the House, Janani Luwum Church House, but ever since its commissioning on August  24 2018, the House is without the name of Janani Luwum. 

This blatant defiance of resolutions of two Provincial Assemblies is the epitomization of institutional dysfunction and moral leadership crisis within the church. Your Grace, the issues afflicting the Province are many and deeply worrying. However, you possesses the canon authority to resolve them. Please restore institutions, laws and ethical leadership in the church. Then God and posterity may be kind to you.

The writer is a politician, trainer and writer

[email protected]